Action | Mental Health Skill-building Services |
Stage | Emergency/NOIRA |
Comment Period | Ended on 12/11/2013 |
While I generally support regualitons that assure that these services are targeted to those with a serious mental illness, I fear that the qualifying criteria are too absolute and rigid given current day practice aimed at promoting recovery and preventing hospitalization. There should be the ability to grant exceptions when there is ample evidence that there is a serious mental illness and the functional defitis that justify the services even when an individual has ben helped to avoid hospitalization. The regulaitons also need to take into account that many persons with a serious mental illness, early in their illness, may require extensive efforts at engagement and trust building before actual skills will be able to be addressed. The smae flexibility is required so that the allowable activities and measures for service continuation undertsand that longer term assistance with various life skills is needed for some individuals and that completed skill acquisition will be elusive for some and ongoing services will be necessary for sustained community tenure.